Campo Grande in Cine Chat

Elegance
and subtlety: words used to describe the way Campo Grande dealt with many polemic topics, including the stark inequalities
and differences among the population of Rio de Janeiro. The film, directed by
Sandra Kogut, was the subject of yesterday’s Cine Chat. One morning, two
children are left in front of a building in Ipanema with no explanation other
than a piece of paper with the name and address of Regina, the owner of the
house. The arrival of these children in Regina’s life – and her attempts to
deal with it – will profoundly change all their lives.​

Film
critic, Rodrigo Fonseca, who mediated the debate, praised the narrative
sophistication of the piece, which, he observed, harmoniously weaved together
many different elements in the film. He particularly noted the artful depiction
of a deconstructed Rio de Janeiro: throughout the city is constantly shown to
be undergoing building works. Fonseca
asked Kogut about the significance of the film’s title. “It’s got a double
meaning,” she revealed. “It’s not just a literal place name, but also
figuratively evokes this idea of distance, of a frightening and unknown land.” For
the protagonist, therefore, “Campo Grande” is the name of the neighbourhood in
the Eastern zone of the city, where the children come from, but, for the
children, the “Campo Grande” is the chic Ipanema, the neighbourhood in which
they end up.

The cast
and crew discussed the incredible acting of the younger cast members, the two
children, as well as that of the main character, played by Carla Ribas, which
required both mental and physical transformation. The film’s distributor,
Jean-Thomas Bernardini, from Imovision, spoke about the difficulty today for auteur cinema in the Brazilian market.
Bernadini praised the director: “I had already seen her previous works, and
knew that she had the capability to bring the most out of Campo grande.”